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Top Tens In 2017: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Top Tens In 2017: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
The Supreme Court loosened the grip of patentees on their products, holding that contractual restrictions on patented product are ineffective to preserve patent rights. The Court also loosened the grip of the Eastern District of Texas on patent cases, announcing a narrower standard that will send more cases to Delaware. The Federal Circuit cases piled up on applying the Alice standard to filter nonpatentable abstract ideas from patentable inventions. Meanwhile, even as the constitutionality of the Patent Trial and Appeals Board pends before the Supreme Court, hundreds of PTAB decisions on the validity of patents move onward to the Federal …
Top Tens In 2015: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Top Tens In 2015: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
The Supreme Court significantly affected the dynamics of patent litigation, holding that patent claim interpretation was not always reviewed de novo and that good faith belief that a patent was invalid was not a defense to infringement. The Federal Circuit potentially changed the approach to patent claim interpretation, holding that claims could be interpreted in light of the written description of the invention, even where the claim was not ambiguous. The Federal Circuit also addressed inducement of patent infringement, holding that it was not inducement to suggest consulting a physician who would likely prescribe an infringing treatment. The Federal Circuit …
The Gpl Meets The Ucc: Does Free Software Come With A Warranty Of No Infringement Of Patents And Copyrights?, Stephen M. Mcjohn
The Gpl Meets The Ucc: Does Free Software Come With A Warranty Of No Infringement Of Patents And Copyrights?, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
The GNU General Public License, known as the GPL, is the cornerstone of free software. The GPL has served as the organizing document for free software, providing a structure that has helped transformed the development of software and electronic devices. Software licensed under the GPL may be freely copied and adapted. The source code for the software is made available, to enable anyone to study and change it. The GPL does have "copyleft" restrictions, intended to keep the software free for others. If someone adapts and redistributes GPL’d software, they must likewise allow access to their source code. The GPL …
Top Tens In 2011: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Top Tens In 2011: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
This paper discusses notable intellectual property law cases in the United States in 2011. Patent cases addressed such issues as the scope of patent subject matter (the patentability of human genes and methods for testing for genetic links to cancer), the standards for challenges to the validity of patents (such as where technology that was not considered by the patent office is put in evidence), and the breadth of patent protection (especially with respect to the scope of protection for software patents). Other cases tested the borders of trademark protection – distinctiveness, functionality, and the interplay between trademark law and …
Top Tens In 2010: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Top Tens In 2010: Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Trade Secret Cases, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
This piece discusses notable intellectual property decisions in 2010 in the United States. Viewed across doctrinal lines, some interesting threads emerge. The scope of protection was at issue in each area, such as whether human genes and business methods are patentable, whether a product idea may be a trade secret, and where the constitutional limits on copyright legislation lie. Secondary liability remains widely litigated, as rights holders seek both deep pocket defendants and a means to cut off individual infringers. The courts applied slightly different standards as to the state of mind required for secondary liability. Many of the cases …
Indigenous Peoples And Intellectual Property, Stephen M. Mcjohn, Lorie Graham
Indigenous Peoples And Intellectual Property, Stephen M. Mcjohn, Lorie Graham
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
This paper, following on Michael F. Brown's Who Owns Native Culture?, suggests that intellectual property law, negotiation, and human rights precepts can work together to address indigenous claims to heritage protection. Granting intellectual property rights in such spheres as traditional knowledge and folklore does not threaten the public domain in the same way that expansion of intellectual property rights in more commercial spheres does. It is not so much a question of the public domain versus corporate and indigenous interests, as it is a question of the impact corporate interests have had on the indigenous claims. Indeed indigenous peoples' claims …
The Paradoxes Of Free Software, Stephen M. Mcjohn
The Paradoxes Of Free Software, Stephen M. Mcjohn
Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works
This paper describes the legal structure of open source software and analyzes the likely issues to arise. A combination of copyright law and trademark law serves to permit the free distribution of open source software. The software is kept under copyright, but freely licensed under one of various open source licenses. The legal structure of open source is an elegant and robust use of intellectual property law that turns the customary use of intellectual property on its head, by using intellectual property laws, which normally are used to guard exclusive rights, to safeguard free access to and use of software. …